Bastion of Konisberg Vikingland (the new $1Billion+ stadium minnesota taxpayers bought for the billionaire Minnesota Vikings owner) being constructed

Coalition properly preparing for the day: Brit on right has a spy glass supplied by Bob the Host and AU, PR, RU have bloody marys.

We spent the usual 1/2 hour or so mucking about and setting up. France had to run an errand, which gave us the opportunity to place a ponies where his forces should be. Upon returning, he had a laugh and announced, "I will select one purple pony and that shall designate the location of the main french army for the day". France was desperate for a change of fortune.

Ponies in France

May 1807: Russians Take French Italy: Coalition Stands Tall in Konisberg

May 1807 began with the Brit's freeing the Danes in order to enlist 19 more ships in the Coalition's fleet. Good timing.

Feeling the pressure of Russians in Italy, France & Spain tried to sortie their bottled up fleet in Naples. 98 ships sailed out to sea and 86 blockading Brits under Lord Nelson intercepted. The Brit hunted through the pile of dice to select for the first big test of the day. Dee tossed the old school Avalon Hill "bone" die...and out pop'd a "1". Eeeegads. Spain selected his die; he would only need to roll a "3" or higher. Drum roll...out pop'd another "1": a truly fitting start for day.

Battle on the high seas

France decided not to engage the Coalition again at Konisberg, but instead move forces to reinforce his main army. Additionally, France completed his conquest of the German minors. The combined Brit/Ru/Pr force stood still. In Italy, the Russians moved against all french minors, conquering Venetia first. In England, 2 Spanish corps shadow boxed with British forces, while a the Swedish & Russian Expeditionary Force was readied.

Russians in Italy

June 1807: Sudden and Dramatic Turn of Events in East Prussia...and an Invasion of France

Russians in Italy & Sweds/Russians in France/Netherlands {4 ports}

June began with 3 Swedish & 1 Russian corps invading the coast of France and the Netherlands and Russians completing the conquest of French Italy, while pushing into Switzerland and Marseilles. The real action was much farther East...again, around Konisberg.

High noon in Konisberg....yet again

After much debate, the Coalition decided to engage the French during their portion of the turn. 14 corps engaged the French purple pony (main army!). 185 Coalition SPs faced off against 158 evil empire SPs. Chits were selected. French went with an Outflank, while the Coalition selected Escalated; France had won their first chit pick in quite awhile. Napoleon tried his outflank roll...anything but a "6" would succeed. A dice was tossed into a glass. Around and around it spun. When stopped...a "6". Both sides broke in the third round. Allies suffered 60 losses, while the evil empire endured 50. The coalition smiled.

Critical chit pull

Well, the time had come...again. The end of a turn before the interphase. France controlled all the prussian provincial capitals but Konisberg. French/Spanish/Danish forces moved to engage the Coalition to finally take Konisber. Chits were picked...slowly. Much debate in both camps. Part of the BIG charm of the game is that tens of hours of gaming comes down to one or two chit picks (and one or two die rolls). Consequently, EiA players like to stretch out "the moment" (even though we all know that it is usually a coin flip between two choices...we like to maintain the illusion that we have insight into the proper selection).

I can speak to the Coalition discussion only. The choice came down to two: Assault or Cordon. The case for each was:

Assault: We've won the war if Prussia is not forced out this turn. Russians are all over French minors and home provinces; France was to react now. France has to win now...he'll probably go with a Probe. Assault is our lowest risk choice and best choice vs Probe.

Cordon: He'll outflank. Sure, he just failed an outflank roll, but, he'll go that way again (he'll think that we think he won't select it back to back). We can afford to take the risk; we're winning the war, so why not go Vegas? Besides, even if we lose the battle he only has a 1/3 chance of breaking into our Alamo called Konisberg.

In the end, the Coalition deferred to wise Prussian Corey. He selected...Cordon. France took an additional ten minutes to mull over the fateful choice. He announced he was ready. Anyone outflank? No. BIG trouble for the coalition, as France announced a PROBE. 125 Coalition forces faced off against a reinforced evil empire stack of 154 SPs.Dice were tossed (three rounds of combat again): 63 more Coalition SPs perished, while France/Spain lost only 25. But, this time, France won the battle.

The next critical roll was made. France would need a 5 or 6 to break into the Coalition's Alamo at Konisberg. Again, the die rolled around in the cup. And, again, a "6" appeared: France had broken into the bastion and Prussia was forced to surrender (all provinces occupied).

On a minor note, Russia ceded Piedmont to Austria. Conquest of French Italy was completed by Russia, pushing their base to $115/47 Manpower. Also, Gibraltar finally fell to the evil empire, and, the Spanish lacky was pleased.

French Happiness with that lucky f*ckin purple pony

Each turn had taken about 2 hours; over double our usual length. But, they were great turns (the kind you play EiA for) and I think we all enjoyed slowing down the pace to savor the gaming moment.

July 1807: Sadly, Prussians Forced to Surrender to French Overlord and Spanish Lacky

Given the dramatic and sudden victory by the French over the Prussians, July began with a LONG diplomacy session (I think the longest of the game - at least an hour). One of the great things about EiA is that when their is a dramatic & sudden change in the military situation, "the balancers" (Russia & Turkey) can shift their weight to one side or the other....or not. Plus, you have victor after a dramatic & sudden victory either taking chips off the table, or, overplaying their hand. Same with the defeated; but either sulking, mitigating the damage, trying to mobilize a new coalition against the victor, etc. Plus, you get a pot stirrer in many EiA groups; that can really stir the pot when the military situation suddenly changes. All good. All part of EiA.

As indicated, Prussia was force to surrender. Austria dec'd on Prussia in order to mitigate the surrender choices of France & Spain. Surrender choices were as follows:

We made it thru the diplomacy phase, but then got hung up on a house rule (it happens). We play with "hidden" corps strengths and "hidden" leaders (just keep track of the leaders on players' sheets). At some point, some one decided (we suspect Rabid Bob) to modify the "hidden" leader rule - (once revealed, leaders remain counter up until the leader is withdrawn) - some of the players followed the modification, some didn't. It never made a difference until this particular moment.

The issue was that the combined defeated coalition main army retreating from Konisberg was now without the Prussians. Only 39 BR/RU SPs remained; outnumbered 3x by France. Would Wellington remain leading the threatened force? Was Wellington "hidden" or revealed? Long discussion...way too long. We did agree not to play with the modification anymore; can't be half pregnant: Either hidden leaders (the way we had always played in Don Pederson's group) or revealed (historical reason to do that, but, hurts game play in the judgement of some). We tired of the discussion and tabled it for April.

Anyways, we had a great gaming session and decided to call it at that point. We then spent an hour eating some great Ukrainian food and discussing this & that. Till late April: we got a great game going.

No effect: Prussians/some brits/some russians defended back in east Prussia (konisberg). Only troops (5 corps) in france are Russian controlled. The Russian has no intention of surrendering to the French; they intend to cause trouble until the Austrians can enter (less than a year from now).

No effect: Prussians/some brits/some russians defended back in east Prussia (konisberg). Only troops (5 corps) in france are Russian controlled. The Russian has no intention of surrendering to the French; they intend to cause trouble until the Austrians can enter (less than a year from now).

Napoleon is welcomed to visit Moskva if he chooses.

I see... looks a bit weird that it doesn't seems to impact France all that much.

He got rid of the Prussian force; but that was pretty much accomplished via the heavy attrition on both sides. Now, he needs to deal with the Russians (which are rampaging thru the minors and now into France proper) before the Austrians re-enter. Austria should be in be in fairly good shape - having built up the last few years without losses. It's an interesting game.

No effect: Prussians/some brits/some russians defended back in east Prussia (konisberg). Only troops (5 corps) in france are Russian controlled. The Russian has no intention of surrendering to the French; they intend to cause trouble until the Austrians can enter (less than a year from now).

Napoleon is welcomed to visit Moskva if he chooses.

I see... looks a bit weird that it doesn't seems to impact France all that much.

It did impact France. First, accepting an unconditional surrender is five political points - a nice impact. Second, this means Prussia is unable to fight France for the next 18 months, but France can fight Austria whenever France wants. For France, keeping the two German powers in non-coinciding enforced peaces is very helpful.

And as Dockter said, the Prussian army has been destroyed - in fact, its best single corps (13 inf, 1 mil, 3 cav) is the one that has been loaned to Spain. Also, the BRITISH took heavy losses there - over 30 factors between those two battles.

It will be interesting, next session, to see whether the French whack Wellington in eastern Prussia in July - the British there have 2 infantry, 8 cav, and 6 guards (Russia has about 23 infantry and nothing else).

I've added the fall of Gibralter to the AAR: forgot about that. Also, a note on the prussian army - it lost almost no chrome (cav, guard). But, replacing that prussian infantry is going to be difficult. However, there is always an option...